I was out on the road for seven days with my trainer, Needham Babb. He is 30 years old and has been with Werner for 2 years. He is the son of a son of a trucker. He's been driving big trucks since he was a little boy. Really. Some of his earliest memories are those of riding in the truck with his dad. Though he never really thought he'd be trucking for a living, having a family and being good at the job convinced him it was the right move to make.
In our journey across America I've learned the gentle art of "floating" gears which means not using the clutch pedal and getting the rpm's at the right place to nudge or pull the gear shifter into the right gear. There is a lot of finesse to this. Finesse in a big rig is not exactly what you might expect but it takes just the right amount of momentum and torque to get a tractor and trailor moving while putting a gear in it's groove without putting too much or too little engine speed.
We left Atlanta and drove through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and ended up in Los Lunas, New Mexico. I was driving about 10 or 11 hours each day. My weakest area is backing. That will come with time and experience. Hopefully none of that experience will include running into anything and damaging equipment. That would be really really bad.
Tuesday we set out for Orlando, Florida. I have some friends in that area. Who knows? Maybe I'll get to see them.
That's all for now.
